Why was Phoenix Suns' owner, Robert Sarver suspended and charged $10M by the NBA?

The NBA just announced they are suspending a club owner for one year and they are charging him $10 million as punishment. These decisions from the NBA don’t come lightly, they tend to have a good reason to carry on with these punishments.

Robert Sarver has been the Phoenix Suns’ majority owner since 2004, he has been at the forefront of the team’s most recent run that hasn’t ended well in the Playoffs for them but they have done wonders in the regular season. The NBA announced they successfully concluded a year-long investigation of Sarver’s activities inside the workplace. With troubling results for the league and for sport in general.

Why has Robert Sarver been suspended by the NBA?

Back in November 2021, there was already a story published by the folks at ESPN about Sarver’s misconduct but there was no proof of any allegation. According to this article, the club owner had troubling behavior against employees and this created an unbearable working culture inside the Phoenix Suns organization.

BREAKING: Robert Sarver, the owner of the Phoenix Suns NBA team, is suspended for a year after an investigation discovered that he "repeated the N-word" at least five times and made "sex-related comments in the workplace." RT IF YOU THINK THAT HE SHOULD BE SUSPENDED FOR GOOD!

— Occupy Democrats (@OccupyDemocrats) September 13, 2022

Interviews with about 70 staff members alleged the owner encouraged racism and misogyny inside the workplace. This created a toxic and hostile environment during his tenure as the owner. As a result of the investigation from the NBA, they found the allegations to be true and decided to act accordingly.

Sarver will complete a training program that will be focused on respect and appropriate behavior inside the workplace. This is added to the $10 million fine and the one-year suspension. According to NBA insider Adrien Wojnarowski, Sarver fully cooperated with the investigations but he expressed he doesn’t agree with the fine.

In the findings, Sarver has even used the N-word at least five times when addressing staff members. He also made sex-related comments against female staff members repeatedly. Sarver is not only suspended from games but he can’t enter any NBA or WNBA facility for the next year.

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